The Sport of Our <J[ncestors 



late Mr. Harrison of Shelswell ? ^ Would not the unhappy 

 coachmen of five-and-twenty years back have gone on, 

 wearing out their breeches with the bumping of the old 

 coach-box, and their stomachs with brandy, had not Mr. 

 Ward of Squerries, after many a weary endeavour, persuaded 

 the proprietors to place their boxes upon springs — the plan 

 for accomplishing which was suggested by Mr. Roberts, 



^ * Mr. Charles Holmes and the Blenheim Coach. — " Nimrod," in his Northern 

 Tour last month, got upon his favourite subject, the road; and we were glad 

 to see it, because we think occasional notices of the different coachmen, and 

 the turns-out from the various establishments, are calculated to afford an 

 additional stimulus to all persons of the same class, and also to promote the 

 public service in the coaching department. We have much pleasure, therefore, 

 in recording a very handsome and flattering compliment that has been recently 

 paid to Mr. Charles Holmes, the driver and part proprietor of the Blenheim 

 coach (from Woodstock to London), to celebrate the completion of his twentieth 

 year on that well-appointed coach, a period that has elapsed without a single 

 accident to his coach, his passengers, or himself, and during which time, with 

 the exception of a very short absence from indisposition, he has driven his 

 sixty-five miles every day, making somewhere about twenty-three thousand 

 miles a year. The numerous patrons of the coach entered into a subscription 

 to present him with a piece of plate ; and accordingly a beautiful cup, bearing 

 the shape of an antique vase, and cover, ornamented with rich handles, com- 

 posed of scrolls and foliage, the cover surmounted by a beautifully modelled 

 horse, with a coach and four horses on one side, and a suitable inscription on 

 the other, was presented to Mr. Holmes by that staunch patron of the road, 

 Sir Henry Peyton, Bart., in August last, at a dinner at the Thatched House 

 Tavern, St. James's Street, to which between forty and fifty gentlemen sat 

 down. The cup was manufactured by Messrs. Green and Ward, and the 

 list of subscribers amounted to upwards of two hundred and fifty, including 

 amongst others the Duke of Wellington, and indeed all persons of rank, 

 business, or pleasure, whose vocations call them in the direction that the coach 

 travels. We see by * BelVs Life in London^ a paper that has uniformly devoted 

 itself to the patronage of this useful class of men, that a handsome salver is 

 yet to be presented to this fortunate and deserving coachman, at Oxford. 

 We feel assured that this flattering distinction will have its due influence in 

 all parts of the country, and we wish Mr. Holmes many years of health and 

 prosperity to enjoy the reward of his long and meritorious services.' — (Ex- 

 tract from the ' New Sporting Magazine ' for November 1835, p. 68.) 



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